In the art of cooking, various tools are used for dispersing ingredients in a container. Basic stirring of chopped vegetables, various sauces, spreads and dips is still largely accomplished manually. On the other hand, blenders are effectively used to mix liquid ingredients. Electric mixers are used to combine dry and liquid ingredients or to whip cream for example. However, these automated appliances are generally for saving time in accomplishing desired mixing tasks which do not require some sort of concurrent cooking/heating time, but where stirring, especially periodically, over a length of time is required, very few automated utensils are available.
Stirring the contents of a saucepan over a burner of a stove is one such stirring task which is largely unaided by automated devices, especially slow cooking items in a cooking container. However, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,624 to Linn, a stirring device incorporated in the lid and handle of a domestic cooking pot is disclosed. The stirring action is generated by a system of pulleys which expand and contract with a sensed change in temperature.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,992 to Kurland, a motorized stirring device is disclosed. The device is mounted over the top of the cooking container in lieu of a lid, except the device only partially covers the container. The motor is supported by the mounting piece, and a blade suspended from the mounting piece into the container is rotated by the motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,053 to Will discloses a stirring device having variable speed. The device is mounted inside the cooking container with radially extending arms with contact ends which engage with the inner walls of the cooking container.